


Wander

by Mahaiwe



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 10:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8324425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mahaiwe/pseuds/Mahaiwe
Summary: Not all those who wander are lost... except this one. This one's definitely lost.





	

So.

He was dead.

Ace’s thoughts were remarkably sparse at the moment, but he could be forgiven for that. He had just died, after all. That he still had thoughts was an entirely unexpected blessing. Thoughts, apparently, were a thing that continued to happen even when you no longer had a brain to think them with. For all the time spent waiting for his execution, Ace hadn’t actually thought much about what death would be like. He had assumed he’d be too dead to notice what it was like.

And really, when one spends one’s life in a grand dramatic gesture, it’s incredibly off-putting to have to deal with _after_. That’s not the sort of thing that has an after. So maybe Ace dwelled a little while on the novelty of being able to continue to think. It was easier than wondering “What now?”

Being dead was kind of like having a phantom limb, except in this case it was a phantom everything. Ace had no frame of reference for a metaphysical existence, so he thought of physical equivalents, even when they really weren’t that similar. He never claimed to be good at metaphors. For example, there was a light off in the distance, despite ‘light’ and ‘distance’ not being applicable concepts right now.

Go into the light, huh? Guess there was something to the cliché after all. Ace wasn’t sure what would happen when he did, but he figured ‘continuing to exist’ was a good start. Before he could move, though, he was struck by a sudden crushing wave of exhaustion.

 

* * *

 

Someplace beyond that light, several souls were waiting to welcome Ace. Thatch fidgeted nervously, trying to get a better look out into the darkness, where a glowing wisp of soul was bobbing. “Is it just me, or does Ace seem a bit... spacey to you?”

“Give him a break,” said Rouge, “He did just die. It’s a little disorienting.” But Thatch didn’t look convinced.

“No, I mean, spacier than just adjusting to being dead,” Thatch insisted. Out across the darkness, the soul had stopped bobbing.

“Well, I’m sure he’ll sort it out soon. All he has to do is go into... the...” Rouge trailed off as Ace’s soul began to move once more - by sliding ever-so-slowly off to the side. The urge to defend her son was replaced with irritation. “Goddamn it, Ace. YOU’RE DRIFTING! TURN AROUND, YOU NUMBSKULL!”

“He’s asleep.” Thatch couldn’t believe it. “How? He doesn’t have a body to sleep with!”

Roger was too amused to be worried. “Bahahahaha! Haven’t you ever heard someone say ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead’? He’s just catching up!” In the distance, Ace’s soul bumped into nothing and drifted off in a different wrong direction.

“He doesn’t need to sleep. _We_ don’t need to sleep. How is he sleeping anyway?!”

“GO RIGHT-- YOUR OTHER RIGHT, GENIUS!”

“Well, he must have caught narcolepsy from Garp really young, maybe it’s just habit by now.”

“That’s not how any of that works!” Thatch protested, to no avail. Roger had lived his whole life without paying attention to boring things like ‘logic’, he certainly wasn’t going to start _now_.

“THERE IS LITERALLY ONLY ONE PLACE TO GO HERE AND IT’S GLOWING! HOW CAN YOU STILL BE GOING THE WRONG WAY?” yelled Rouge as Ace continued to float in every direction except towards the light.

"That's my son," Roger said proudly as he watched Ace's soul gently wobble off to god-knows-where. "Not even death can stop him from finding a new adventure."

Thatch was positive that narcolepsy didn't count as an adventure, but there was no arguing with Roger.

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be the intro to a "Five Times" crossover fic with Ace drifting into various afterlives, but I decided it worked better on its own. If you'd like to use this as a starting point, feel free.


End file.
